Taglines: Fear Strikes Back.
Trapped movie storyline. A mother is caught in a race against time to save her child in this taut suspense thriller. Dr. Will Jennings (Stuart Townsend) and his wife, Karen (Charlize Theron), find their world has been turned upside down when they’re taken hostage and held in different cities while their young daughter is kidnapped by the same band of ruthless criminals.
Joe Hickey (Kevin Bacon) has hatched a seemingly foolproof plan with his wife, Cheryl (Courtney Love), and cousin, Marvin (Pruitt Taylor Vince): while Dr. Jennings and Mrs. Jennings are under guard and unable to contact the police, Hickey will demand a massive ransom for the return of their daughter. If the payment is not arranged in 24 hours, the girl will be killed.
Will and Karen realize it’s imperative that they find their daughter as soon as possible, as she suffers from a medical condition that could claim her life if she doesn’t receive her medication within a day, but as Karen plots a way to get away from Joe and rescue her little girl, she discovers money isn’t the only reason Joe has chosen the Jenningses as his victims. Trapped was based on the novel 24 Hours by Greg Iles; 24 Hours was also announced as the film’s title before it was changed to avoid being confused with the popular television series 24.
Trapped is a 2002 American-German crime thriller film based on Greg Iles’ bestselling novel 24 Hours and directed by Luis Mandoki and released under the banner ‘Propaganda Films Production.’ It stars Charlize Theron, Courtney Love, Stuart Townsend, Kevin Bacon, Dakota Fanning and Pruitt Taylor Vince, and was released on September 20, 2002.
Film Review for Trapped
In ”Trapped,” a pointless little kidnapping thriller, Kevin Bacon and Courtney Love are Joe and Cheryl Hickey, a pair of extortionists who, with Joe’s cousin Marvin (Pruitt Taylor Vince), have devised what they imagine to be a quick, foolproof moneymaking system. Since it has already gone like clockwork four times (each abduction netting them a cool quarter of a million dollars without a hitch or an injury), they are unprepared when the fifth couple on their hit list, Will and Karen Jennings (Stuart Townsend and Charlize Theron), an anesthesiologist and his wife, fight back.
The film, directed with a jiggling camera by Luis Mandoki from a screenplay by Greg Iles, is a reasonably efficient mechanism, but it offers few surprises and finds its stars slumming in territory they should have avoided. Sinewy and snake-eyed, flashing sly, wet smiles, Mr. Bacon’s Joe oozes the kind of rancid bravado that begs for a fist in the jaw to wipe away that sleazy grin. Ms. Love’s Cheryl projects the abrasive walleyed screwiness of a grown-up baby doll that’s been smashed against the wall too many times.
While Will is attending a conference in Portland, Ore., Cheryl worms her way into his hotel room by posing as a predatory medical groupie. At the same moment, Joe and Marvin snatch the Jenningses’ adorable little girl, Abby (Dakota Fanning), from the family’s picture-perfect waterside home. Marvin spirits the child away to a hideout in the Cascades, while Joe remains in the house and terrorizes Karen. Sex, of course, is on his list of things to do. Since the conspirators talk regularly by cellphone, the movie operates under the fiction that cellphone communication is reliable anytime, anyplace and anywhere.
The first glitch occurs when it turns out that the abducted child is a severe asthmatic who could die without her medication. As the Jenningses retaliate, the movie gives you the sickening thrill of vicarious revenge. Karen nearly castrates Joe with a scalpel during her attempted seduction, while Will injects Cheryl with a paralyzing anesthetic. The sole plot twist is awkwardly inserted midway in the film, when it is revealed that Joe and Cheryl are motivated not only by greed but also by revenge. It all builds to a highway chase in which Will, piloting a seaplane, lands in traffic, causing an explosion, along with a massive tie-up.
As the doting parents struggle to take back their child, Ms. Theron and Mr. Townsend have little to do but go through the standard motions of desperation. Ms. Theron brims with tears through most of the film, while Mr. Townsend, who appears ill at ease, mimes various shades of exasperation. ”Trapped” arrives at a moment when the headlines are full of child abductions. Its release couldn’t have been more poorly timed.
Trapped (2002)
Directed by: Luis Mandoki
Starring: Charlize Theron, Courtney Love, Stuart Townsend, Kevin Bacon, Dakota Fanning, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Jodie Markell, Steve Rankin, Colleen Camp, Andrew Airlie
Screenplay by: Greg Iles
Production Design by: Richard Sylbert
Cinematography by: Frederick Elmes, Piotr Sobocinski
Film Editing by: Gerald B. Greenberg
Costume Design by: Michael Kaplan
Set Decoration by: Annmarie Corbett, Rose Marie McSherry
Art Direction by: William Heslup
Music by: John Ottman
MPAA Rating: R for violence, language and sexual content.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: September 20, 2002
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